Trump may visit N Korea
DONALD Trump accepted an invitation from Kim Jong-un to visit North Korea during their historic summit, Pyongyang state media reported yesterday, as the US President said the world had jumped back from the brink of “nuclear catastrophe”.
Tuesday’s unprecedented encounter in Singapore saw the leader of the world’s most powerful democracy shake hands with Mr Kim, the third generation scion of a dynastic dictatorship, as they stood as equals in front of their nations’ flags.
In a characteristically bullish tweet, Mr Trump said the first-ever summit between sitting leaders of the two Cold War foes meant “the World has taken a big step back from potential Nuclear catastrophe!” “No more rocket launches, nuclear testing or research! The hostages are back home with their families. Thank you to Chairman Kim, our day together was historic!”
In a joint statement following the talks, Mr Kim agreed to the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula” — a stock phrase favoured by Pyongyang that stopped short of long-standing US demands for North Korea to give up its atomic arsenal in a “verifiable” and “irreversible” way.
In its first report on the landmark summit, the official KCNA news agency ran a glowing dispatch on the talks, describing them as an “epochmaking meeting” that would help foster “a radical switchover in the most hostile (North Korea)-US relations”.
The report said the two men each asked the other to visit their country.
“The two top leaders gladly accepted each other’s tation,” KCNA said.
It asserted that Mr Trump had “expressed his intention” to lift sanctions against the North — something the US President had told a blockbuster press conference would happen “when we are sure that the nukes are no longer a factor”. “The sanctions right now remain,” he added.
In his post-summit press conference, Mr Trump made the surprise announcement that the US would halt joint military exercises with its security ally Seoul — something invi- long sought by Pyongyang, which claims the drills are a rehearsal for invasion.
The US has about 30,000 troops in South Korea to protect it from its neighbour, which invaded in 1950 in an attempt to reunify the peninsula by force. Mr Trump told reporters he wanted to withdraw US troops from the South “at some point”.